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The Fight (episode)
When Voyager is caught in "chaotic space," an area where the laws of physics are in a state of flux, Chakotay begins hearing and seeing things, apparently caused by the aliens living inside it who are trying to contact the ship. Summary Chakotay is in sickbay, lying on one of the tables, shouting and thrashing about. Also present are the Doctor, Seven of Nine and Tom Paris. Paris asks the Doctor to give Chakotay something for the pain, but the Doctor refuses, saying that they could lose the chance to make contact with the aliens. Suddenly, the ship shudders. Captain Janeway calls from the bridge, asking if they've made any progress. The Doctor replies that they haven't. Janeway says they're running out of time. If ''Voyager'' doesn't get out of chaotic space, they're all going to die. :"Chief medical officer's log, supplemental. Despite my efforts, Chakotay's condition continues to deteriorate." Chakotay calls the Doctor. He's tired, he wants to sleep. However, the Doctor again won't let him. If he loses consciousness, he could sever the link to the aliens who live in chaotic space, and who may know a way out. Chakotay doesn't want to talk to them, as he's afraid he may end up like his grandfather, 'a crazy old man'. The Doctor tells him the aliens are reconfiguring his neural pathways, in an attempt to communicate with him. He makes Chakotay concentrate, and remember when he came into sickbay after he had been injured in a boxing simulation on the holodeck. In a flashback, Chakotay is in a holodeck simulation of a boxing ring. Chakotay is in the ring, fighting a Terellian. Boothby, who used to coach him as a cadet, is in his corner. At the end of the third round, Chakotay returns to his corner where he is chastised by Boothby for not allowing his opponent to land some punches and tire himself out, saying that boxing is as much about heart as technique. Round four begins, and Chakotay sees a disturbance forming in the corner of the ring, right before he is knocked out. Chakotay wakes up in sickbay, where he argues with the Doctor over the merits of boxing, which the Doctor describes as 'pointless violence'. The Doctor nicknames him 'The Maquis Mauler' to further his point. Chakotay complains of a headache, and tells the Doctor about the disturbance he saw before he was hit. The Doctor initially dismisses this as hallucinations, but further examination shows that the ganglia in Chakotay's visual cortex are highly active. The ship shudders, and Chakotay is called to the bridge, promising to return for further tests. Chakotay arrives on the bridge, where a spatial phenomenon is interfering with the ship's sensors. Apparently, it shifts position every few minutes. Then the ship shudders again, and a distortion similar to the one seen by Chakotay in the boxing ring envelops Voyager. Seven of Nine calls Janeway to astrometrics, where she informs her that the Borg have been aware of this phenomenon for some time. It is called chaotic space, a zone where the laws of physics are in a constant state of flux. Changes in the gravitational coefficient cause shear forces along the hull, shields offering only temporary protection. Due to the shifting of the physical constants, sensors can't function. Janeway orders the sensors to be reconfigured. Chakotay, while alone in his quarters, hears noises, such as Boothby shouting and the end of round bell. He sees a pair of boxing gloves on a chair, which disappear when he looks away. Tuvok calls him to the bridge. With the sensors useless, Voyager can't move safely. While Tuvok and Paris argue about what to do, Chakotay starts to hallucinate again. He hears crowd noises, and sees a pair of boxing gloves at the sensor station. Tuvok asks him if he is all right, at which Chakotay swings at Tuvok. Tuvok uses the Vulcan nerve pinch on him to render him unconscious. In sickbay, the Doctor has discovered that Chakotay's hallucinations are due to a genetic marker for a cognitive disorder being switched on. Symptoms include auditory and visual hallucinations. The gene was suppressed before Chakotay was born, but now it has been switched on, possibly due to chaotic space. The Doctor orders Chakotay to remain in sickbay, where Chakotay tells him his grandfather suffered from similar hallucinations, but he refused treatment. Meanwhile on the bridge, Harry Kim has managed to reconfigure the sensors, and Voyager starts to move forward slowly. However, before the ship moves very far, a vessel appears on sensors. The log from the damaged ship reveals that the captain and an engineer both suffered from hallucinations. The ship was trapped in chaotic space for almost a year before the hull was breached. Janeway notes that it is no coincidence that both the aliens and Chakotay suffered similar hallucinations. The dead captain's body is beamed over for an autopsy. Scans of the alien's brain reveal that optical and auditory neurons have been partially stripped of their protein insulation, leading to hallucinations. The Doctor concludes that the gene responsible for producing protein insulation was shut down - something in chaotic space altered the DNA. Chakotay wants to go on a vision quest, to find out more about the halluncinations. The Doctor disapproves, but relents when Janeway gives the go ahead. In the vision quest, Chakotay sees a forest, and then his grandfather walking among the trees. He tells him to take his medicine, but his grandfather refuses. He goes in to a cave, where he hears boxing noises again. Suddenly, he is in a boxing ring, a strange ring that has only three sides. He wakes up, and tells the Doctor that the aliens were watching him, trying to tell him something, but he's afraid to listen to them, afraid he'll lose his mind. The Doctor encourages him, and suddenly Chakotay starts to speak, saying 'chaotic space intersects ours' and Voyager must escape by altering the warp field to a rentrillic trajectory'. However, Chakotay refuses to listen to 'them' anymore. The Doctor tells Janeway that Chakotay definitely made contact with the aliens, but Janeway says they need more information. She convinces Chakotay to try again. Chakotay is back in the ring with his opponent 'Kid Chaos', who has his back turned. Also there is Tuvok and a security detail, with phasers. Tuvok wants to fire on Kid Chaos, but Boothby warns Chakotay not to let him, that it won't work. Chakotay orders Tuvok to stand down. Then Chakotay is in the ring, dressed in boxing gear. Paris tries to stop the fight, and then Neelix goes into the ring and leads Chakotay out. Chakotay is then on the bridge, punching a punching bag, where Kim, Janeway and B'Elanna Torres all try to stop his fighting. Finally, the Doctor tries to scare him into not fighting by telling him the fight will cause him to lose his mind. Chakotay is then back in the cave from the vision quest, where he sees his grandfather again. He tells him they'll get in trouble if they don't go home. His grandfather refuses. He tells Chakotay there is a lot of 'them' out there, and that 'they' are coming for Chakotay. Then he's back in the ring. He tells Boothby he's afraid, before the Doctor steps into the ring, and says the fight has been cancelled on medical grounds. Chakotay comes out of the vision quest, which he was stuck in. He wants to get back in the ring, and accuses the Doctor of stopping the fight. On the bridge, Kim is trying to navigate the ship by dropping beacons, but Voyager ends up going around in circles. In astrometrics, Seven has found an isolinear frequency in the energy signature of chaotic space. The source is unknown, but Janeway recognises the frequency as the nucleotide resonance frequency. The signal was designed to activate DNA, and realigned Chakotay's molecular bonds. Aliens that the sensors can't detect are inducing the hallucinations. Their only means to communicate with Voyager is by altering people's senses, as they did with the people on the damaged ship. Hull pressure is increasing, so despite the Doctor's warning, Janeway tells him to send Chakotay 'back in the ring'. The Doctor fully activates the gene, and Chakotay is back in the ring. He tells Boothby he's worried, but Boothby reassures him and gives him advice. Chakotay removes his robe adorned with the Docotor's nickname, 'The Maquis Mauler', and turns to Kid Chaos. Kid Chaos turns to face Chakotay. He has no face, just a starfield. The aliens speak using a montage of words said by the crew up to this point. They tell Chakotay they live in chaotic space, and that Voyager must escape by realigning its sensors. Back in sickbay, Chakotay wants to stop, but the Doctor pushes him, until Chakotay starts to understand what the aliens want him to do. He runs to the bridge and pushes Kim out of the way. He has to make the modifications himself; he can't explain how to do it. He reroutes the deflector through the sensors, and then puts the deflector on line, at full amplitude. Kim says the sensors have found a course through chaotic space. Voyager flies out of chaotic space at full impulse. Janeway orders Paris to resume course for the Alpha Quadrant, before Chakotay collapses. Janeway gives Chakotay a few days off, which he uses to get in some boxing practice on the holodeck. Background Information Links and References Special Guest Star *Ray Walston as Boothby Guest Stars *Carlos Palomino as Kid Chaos *Ned Romero as Grandfather Co-Stars *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) *Steve Dennis as Thompson (Voyager Crewman) (uncredited) References Boothby; boxing; chaotic space; chaotic space hulk; deflector dish; hallucination; holodeck; Mars; McCalister; Orion III; Price Jones; Renlay Sharr; Terellian; Tulet; vision quest |next= }} Fight, The de:Der Fight es:The Fight fr:The Fight nl:The Fight